1. Huntington’s disease (HD), or Huntington’s chorea, is a degenerative nerve disorder with a genetic basis that becomes apparent after about the age 40. The abnormal gene that produces this disease, H, is dominant. The normal, recessive gene is h. One of Heather’s parents has HD but the other doesn’t. Can you predict the highest probability that Heather will develop HD later in her life?

Question

1. Huntington’s disease (HD), or Huntington’s chorea, is a degenerative nerve disorder with a genetic basis that becomes apparent after about the age 40. The abnormal gene that produces this disease, H, is dominant. The normal, recessive gene is h. One of Heather’s parents has HD but the other doesn’t. Can you predict the highest probability that Heather will develop HD later in her life?

Can someone please help me with this?? I got an answer of a 100% probability that Heather will develop HD but I'm not sure if it's right. Can someone explain this problem and the right answer to me?

Answer 1

Your answer is right if the affected parents genotype is HH. But it could also be Hh. However the non affected parents genotype is hh. So depending on the genotype of the affected adult, she could have a hundred percent chance or a fifty percent chance

Answer 2

Hi, Thank you for the answer. I assumed that the affected parent's genotype is HH since it asks for the highest probability. Do you think my reasoning seems to be correct??

Answer 3

HH is the correct answer since it asks for the highest probability

Answer 4

what is the highest probability that heather will develop Huntington's disease?

Answer 5

To predict the probability that Heather will develop Huntington's disease (HD), we need to use the principles of Mendelian genetics. Since HD is caused by a dominant gene, a person only needs to inherit one copy of the abnormal gene (H) from either parent to develop the disease.

Let's analyze the possibilities of Heather's genetic makeup:

1. Heather's mother has HD (HH) and her father does not (hh).
In this case, Heather will definitely inherit one copy of the dominant H gene from her mother, and one copy of the recessive h gene from her father. She will be Hh, which means she will develop HD.

2. Heather's mother does not have HD (hh), and her father does not have HD either (hh).
In this case, both parents have the recessive h gene. As a result, Heather will inherit one copy of the recessive h gene from each parent, making her hh. Since she does not have the abnormal H gene, she will not develop HD.

Based on these possibilities, we can conclude that if one of Heather's parents has HD and the other does not, there is a 100% probability that Heather will develop HD later in her life.

Therefore, your answer of 100% probability is correct.